New format for WJC and WJC18

29 May 2012 | Henrik Lundqvist

IIHF will change the format of the Ice Hockey U18 and U20 World Championships. The semi final bye for the group winners is gone. Now teams 1-4 of each group will qualify for the quarter finals.

Starting with the 2013 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship in Sochi, Russia (18-28 April) the U18 and U20 World Championshops will have a new format.

With the old format, that has been used since 2003, the winner of each of the two groups received a bye to the semi final. Teams 2-3 played quarter finals while teams 4-5 had to play the relegation round.

With the new format teams 1-4 of each group makes it to the quarter finals. The quarter finals will be played cross-over the groups, so that the winner of a group will play team 4 of the other group.

The fifth placed team of each group will play each other in a best-of-3 series to avoid relegation to Division 1A.

The new format will not apply for the 2013 IIHF Ice Hockey U20 World Championship in Ufa, Russia as the schedule already is set.

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